STRUCTURES
Only Fools Don’t Fool With Mother Nature

What
would the
Bell Tower
be with some
of its signature
hedges removed?
Should more

paths lead
directly to the
Old Well?

The random scattering of old trees and the gentle rise and fall of the topography along the walk from Franklin Street to South Building are much the same as they were in the University’s infancy.

Just about everything else is deliberate, starting with the shaping of the terrain amid symmetrical building placement in the second quadrangle.

The modern campus, acknowledged as one of the country’s most picturesque, is the product of five distinct eras of landscape design, going back to Elisha Mitchell in the mid-19th century. In other words, beloved places thought to be perfect at any given time periodically get messed with. A year-old study suggests that a long period of laissez-faire has left us with the need to mess some more.

What would the Bell Tower be with some of its signature hedges removed? A more inviting destination? A better neighbor in the landscape? Should more paths lead directly to the Old Well? What subtle changes would make motorists more likely to treat the well plaza as a pedestrian area in which they temporarily intrude?

THE DIGNITY OF RESTRAINT

Take, for example, two areas — Forest Theater and Kenan Stadium — for which pains were taken to maintain natural settings. The amphitheater looks as it did the day it was finished, because it’s hardly been used for years. Would it be usable again with better pedestrian access and something to quiet the cars on Country Club Road? Kenan was laid into a natural bowl and the forest around it carefully preserved. But buildings have encroached, the stadium is bulging with growth, and foot traffic around it is heavy. How much longer can the now declining Kenan Woods continue to distinguish the stadium among college football arenas without some intervention?

The study, titled “The Dignity of Restraint,” seeks a balance between those perennial adversaries, nostalgia and reality. It addresses five areas: McCorkle and Polk, the original quads; the Bell Tower formal garden; the amphitheater; and Kenan Woods. It proposes some changes; some

NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION

significant, others subtle.

How do you improve upon the Old Well plaza? Very carefully, but Jill Coleman ’ 76, the University’s chief landscape architect, thinks you can. The well used to have more paths radiating from it. “I personally think it’s a good idea to open this up a bit,” she said. “It’s beautiful when the azaleas are in bloom. I want it to be beautiful year-round.”

The study suggests hydrangea beds to replace the azaleas and a return to rustic-looking wooden benches, which appear in

Above, the Bell Tower in 1953 — much as it is today — and in an artist’s concept with some hedges removed and steps built up from the street. What appear to be subtle changes could be significant if they make the garden a stopping-off place for pedestrians.